BNP Paribas is a proud supporter of Tobacco Free Portfolios – an exceptional team, uniquely placed to guide and support a transition to tobacco-free finance. Moving to tobacco-free has been an important step for BNP Paribas and underpins our commitment to sustainable finance.

Public health authorities work hard to support people to say no to tobacco. But the tobacco industry will continue destroying health as long as financial markets reward it for doing so. Tobacco Free Portfolios plays a vital role by working with investors to say no to tobacco too.

Meeting with Dr. Bronwyn King was an eye opener for us. We had defined investment exclusions before: manufacturers of cluster bombs and antipersonnel landmines, coal producers and energy producers with more than 30% of coal in their mix. But as a large international insurer with a significant focus on health, we had never focused on tobacco, which kills more than eight million people annually. This was a gaping hole in our guidelines and it took us a few weeks to officially announce that we would become tobacco free.

I have seen the tremendous work that Tobacco Free Portfolios has done and the results they have achieved to get the financial sector out of the tobacco industry. That has made me a proud co-operator with these fine people and our common goals.

Armed with professionalism, patience, facts, finesse and unrelenting determination, the Tobacco Free Portfolios team has brought new hope to conquering a seemingly impossible challenge.

By targeting new stakeholders, Tobacco Free Portfolios supports the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and its ultimate goal of curbing the global tobacco epidemic.

Without investments, the tobacco industry simply cannot promote a practice which, because of its often lethal consequences on the right to health, ought to have been ended decades ago. The courageous movement led by Dr. Bronwyn King and her colleagues at Tobacco Free Portfolios is therefore a signature part of the human rights movement and their brilliant work fully deserves the support of all.

I would like to congratulate the remarkable team at Tobacco Free Portfolios for bringing this important issue into the board rooms of the finance industry and out of the investment portfolios of everyday savers. No role for tobacco when we invest for the future.

The tobacco industry, with its incessant drive to promote nicotine addiction, is probably the most pernicious of all business, pursuing profits at the cost of 8 million human lives every year. It is therefore heartening that Tobacco Free Portfolios challenges its access to finance by insisting that people matter more than profits.

You need correct and relevant information to make the right decisions. Tobacco Free Portfolios enlightened me and AP4 on why tobacco should be excluded in every long term and sustainable driven pension fund.

Tobacco Free Portfolios is bringing a fresh approach to our decades long fight against the tobacco industry and opening up opportunities for new and powerful business partners in our movement.

Tobacco-Free Portfolios is making a significant global impact by disrupting what the tobacco industry cares most about - their bottom line.

Tobacco continues to exert an unacceptable toll on society and remains the major preventable cause of disease and ill-health globally. Tobacco Free Portfolios is playing a pivotal role in the tobacco control agenda.

TFP provided us the platform to share our views and experiences on exiting the tobacco industry and therefore leveraging our impact towards other financial institutions both nationally as well as internationally. The major result of our cooperation is that we learn from other financial institutions and other financial institutions can learn from our experiences.